{"id":18392,"date":"2023-09-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/?p=18392"},"modified":"2022-03-29T20:00:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T00:00:40","slug":"asm-017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/2023\/09\/15\/asm-017\/","title":{"rendered":"ASM 017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coverless and cheap, that\u2019s fine with me! That really could be Jason behind Liz on the splash. The way literally everyone in this class hates Peter except Liz is a bit over the top. I know bullying is\/was a serious issue, but even random no name background dudes hate on him for no reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Comics sometimes like to do the \u201cwould there be no villains if there wasn\u2019t a hero to oppose?\u201d thing, and boy, does early Spider-Man make a case for them. Doc Ock literally going on a national crime spree just to get Spider-Man\u2019s attention in #11, now this. But, hey, they introduce the glider, ditching the broomstick. The broomstick thing worked with Goblin\u2019s weirdly witchy armory, but the glider is an obvious improvement. One more thing to get the wheels in motion\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The other weird thing about Peter\u2019s life is how there\u2019s exactly 2 girls in this series and they just happen to both be into him. Hated by men, loved by women! Thinking about how they made a future plot point of Flash saying he never bullied Peter, that he only gave back what he received\u2026 doesn\u2019t really fly in the old days. Peter was definitely mean, but always in response to people being mean to him. Later on, Peter\u2019s walking down the street when people begin looking up and shouting, which is never a good sign, but it\u2019s not The Green Goblin, it\u2019s 2 guys running on a roof with big cartoon money bags toward a waiting helicopter. Changing quickly, Spider-Man leaps up to stop them, only to discover they\u2019re part of a movie being filmed, and he\u2019s just ruined it, which is pretty good. I\u2019m not the only one who thinks so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We quickly learn Liz\u2019s dad has put an ad in the paper for Flash\u2019s club, and allowed them to use his dinner club for their meeting. Flash had the ad say Spider-Man will be there, fully confident he\u2019ll see the ad and show up, since he\u2019s such a great guy. Liz is adamant about Peter coming, but of course, he can\u2019t if he chooses to appear as Spider-Man. There\u2019s also a bunch more catty Betty\/Liz stuff. While all that\u2019s going on, Peter\u2019s Spider Sense goes crazy, because The Green Goblin just walked by in his still mysterious civilian persona. He\u2019s reading about the fan club, and probably deciding to crash the meeting. Liz finally says if Flash won\u2019t let Peter come to the meeting, she\u2019ll tell her dad not to let him use the dinner club. Peter walks Betty home, and she\u2019s secretly upset he didn\u2019t invite her to the club meeting he didn\u2019t even agree to go to, and he didn\u2019t invite her because he plans to go as Spider-Man. Typical stuff. Then he becomes Spider-Man and tries to find Green Goblin, but quickly realizes he can\u2019t just go around scaring people. He gives up and switches back to Peter just in time to hear a gunshot as he walks out of an alley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The rivalry continues! An interesting bit of dialogue on the next page\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The still mysterious MJ likes Spider-Man so much Aunt Anna told Aunt May about it, eh? That works with the retcon. Well, now the entire cast of the book except Aunt May converges on The Avenue Dinner Club. Someone goofs and has Flash call Liz\u2019s dad \u201cMr. Brant\u201d as he thanks him for letting the club meet here, and he\u2019s happy about the publicity. There\u2019s a big crowd, and even Johnny Storm and his girlfriend Dorrie have turned up to see if Spider-Man will appear, Dorrie warning Johnny she told him he\u2019s not allowed to flame on tonight. Then Spider-Man arrives. As the crowd cheers, an unseen Green Goblin throws an exploding frog that cuts his webline. He does some flips and lands,, but Johnny could tell something was up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The battle kicks into high gear as Goblin debuts a new bat gimmick that creates a smoke screen and throws what I think is his first pumpkin bomb (He had bombs last time, but I don\u2019t think we got a good look at one) and shows off how maneuverable his new glider is as he jukes away when Spider-Man leaps at him. Johnny\u2019s convinced this isn\u2019t an act, but the rest of the crowd is way into it. As the fight goes on, Peter overhears Liz wondering why she never sees Peter and Spider-Man in the same place, and gets so worried about that he loses focus. But only for a moment, and he gets The Goblin right where he wants him just in time for\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That\u2019s a pretty wacky turn of events. Peter rushes off to become Spider-Man again, Betty weeps because she\u2019s sure she\u2019s lost Peter to Liz, and The Green Goblin makes a real fool out of The Human Torch with his various smoke clouds and explosions until the crowd finally figures out this is a real fight. Then Spider-Man reappears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I sincerely doubt Ditko intended the punch in panel 3 to be a miss. But man, there\u2019s a lot going on in this issue! I wonder if someone\u2019s ever counted all of Aunt May\u2019s heart attacks? Maybe I should\u2019ve been. It\u2019s insane. She\u2019s both the most vulnerable and most powerful person in the strip. Who could possibly survive having 50 heart attacks?? At any rate, the crowd begins to turn on Spider-Man for running out, and JJJ is lovin\u2019 it. Torch tries to fight The Goblin, but having no beef with Torch, he just throws a few more gimmicks at him and leaves himself. Peter is rushing to the hospital as we check in with the aftermath\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peter really can get into the worst trouble. Maybe he can get things back on track next issue\u2026 or maybe not! This issue features a letter from Doug Moench, future co-creator of Moon Knight. I feel like this isn\u2019t the first letter I\u2019ve seen from him. As it happens, the mail in this issue is about Green Goblin\u2019s first appearance, with fans and detractors. Doug was a fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coverless and cheap, that\u2019s fine with me! That really could be Jason behind Liz on the splash. The way literally everyone in this class hates Peter except Liz is a bit over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[9,35,11,12,40,72,13,172,2,6,8],"class_list":["post-18392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1960s","tag-amazing-spider-man","tag-aunt-may","tag-betty-brant","tag-flash-thompson","tag-green-goblin","tag-human-torch","tag-j-jonah-jameson","tag-liz-allen","tag-spider-man","tag-stan-lee","tag-steve-ditko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18393,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18392\/revisions\/18393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/comicsfromspace.com\/spiderman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}